Today marks the release of Q1 2022 data; the third Quarterly release since the RAJAR service was halted at the end of Q1 2020.
The big headline is that radio has hit its highest ever recorded reach, with overall listening increasing by 222,000 from 88.9% to 89.3% (Q3 and Q4 2021). Commercial radio continues to grow with 395,000 extra listeners up to 66.8% of reach and an increase in the average hours of listening to 13.2 hours per week. There is more clarity on listening via websites, apps and smart speakers
Headlines

• All radio listening increased on its record 89% (RAJAR Q4 21) weekly reach to 89.3% -  that’s 49.7m adults.
• Commercial radio continues to deliver great reach with 67% of UK adults every week. Individual listening increased to a weekly average of 13.2 hours. 
• For the first time, we can see device usage more clearly, enabling us to plan campaigns around audiences as well as devices.
• We are also able to see that 12.4% of online listening is via websites/apps and 9.9% from smart speakers.
• Mobile listening has increased by 1% to 32%. The largest growth is from the younger 25-34 age group who are up by 3 points to 40% - all claiming to listen to Live Radio via a mobile device at least once per month.
• Voice-activated speaker usage is also up from Q4 2021 with 52% of speaker users listening to radio weekly.
• In-home and work listening remain stable at 68% and 20% reach respectively. In-car listening is working its way back up to its pre-pandemic reach levels of 65% with 60% reach.

Exciting numbers being posted by several stations over the period:

• GB News posted their first RAJAR results with 239k listeners and 6.3 hours of average listening per week
• Times Radio increases 201k to 703k reach in Q1
• Capital Dance continues its upward trend seen in Q4 2021 adding another 208k to 800k listeners overall with an increase of 0.3 hours as well
• Capital Xtra Reloaded is up by 134k in listeners, to 411k with an additional 0.3 hours
• Heart 90s show a considerable gain of 248k to 793k overall
• Heart Dance up 310k listeners to 653k and 0.6 growth in hours of listening
• Greatest Hits Network had a substantial increase of 799k listeners to 4,184,000 reach
• Hits Radio Brand is up from 8,455,000 to 9,194,000 reach – a growth of 739k
• talkSPORT network (containing talkSPORT and talkSPORT2) has increased 166k listeners to 3,262,000 reach in total

Additional insights will be available in the coming weeks as the data is enhanced with extra info on audiences, reach, share and listening hours. The Q1 2022 trading data will be released and become the active trading currency from Monday 6th June.
 
(Sources: RAJAR | [email protected])